PrehistoricPlaque

by Alison

on 21 July 2014

I was listening to NPR in the car this weekend, and I heard this story about prehistoric dental plaque. You can check it out here. One of the things the story says is -“"[dental plaque] can calcify within about two weeks, and once it's calcified it's very hard." That plaque is so hard that it lasts thousands of years”(Hardy).

This is good for archaeologists, because they can learn a lot about prehistoric folks from this plaque, but think about it from a modern day point of view. Unless you are doing a perfect job of removing plaque from your teeth every 24 hours that stuff is going to stick to your teeth causing all kinds of problems. It might even stick for a millennia or more!

The article talks about prehistoric people, “roasting and eating a plant called purple nutsedge, or Cyperus rotundus. It looks like grass, but has a network of roots like little potatoes”(Hardy). And this plant probably helped prevent tooth decay. So check out the arti2cle, it’s really interesting

And if you’d like someone to scrape that hard tartar off your teeth before it’s stuck there for a thousand years, give us a call. We can help you with that. 703-532-1712 FallsChurchSmiles.com